Ant Colony Optimization and Genetic Algorithm for Fuzzy Stochastic Production-Distribution Planning

Abstract

In this paper, a tactical Production-Distribution Planning (PDP) has been handled in a fuzzy and stochastic environment for supply chain systems (SCS) which has four echelons (suppliers, plants, warehouses, retailers) with multi-products, multi-transport paths, and multi-time periods. The mathematical model of fuzzy stochastic PDP is a NP-hard problem for large SCS because of the binary variables which determine the transportation paths between echelons of the SCS and cannot be solved by optimization packages. In this study, therefore, two new meta-heuristic algorithms have been developed for solving fuzzy stochastic PDP: Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). The proposed meta-heuristic algorithms are designed for route optimization in PDP and integrated with the GAMS optimization package in order to solve the remaining mathematical model which determines the other decisions in SCS, such as procurement decisions, production decisions, etc. The solution procedure in the literature has been extended by aggregating proposed meta-heuristic algorithms. The ACO and GA algorithms have been performed for test problems which are randomly generated. The results of the test problem showed that the both ACO and GA are capable to solve the NP-hard PDP for a big size SCS. However, GA produce better solutions than the ACO.